A system available in the art enables video from a camera disposed at a remote location to be observed by a number of people at a number of locations via a network. For example, there is a system in which a computer-controllable camera is connected to a personal computer that has been connected to the Internet, and not only is real-time video captured by the camera distributed to accessing individuals but these individuals are also allowed to control the camera through a WWW (World-Wide Web) server on the Internet (e.g., see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-040185). The side that distributes the video and the side that observes it are in a server-client relationship. In the description that follows, the apparatus or system on the server side that includes the camera shall be referred to as a “camera server” and the client shall be referred to as an “operating terminal”.
A problem relating to camera control arises between the camera server and operating terminals when camera control operations such as pan, tilt and zoom are allowed from a plurality of operating terminals simultaneously. Accordingly, it has been so arranged that the camera control privilege is granted to one operating terminal, camera control is allowed only from the operating terminal having the control privilege, the control privilege is invalidated upon elapse of a fixed period of time and the control privilege is granted to another operating terminal, whereby this other operating terminal is allowed to control the camera (e.g., see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-042278).
Owing to the growing popularity of mobile telephones and advances in technology in recent years, mobile telephones are now equipped with a WWW browser function, and functions that make it possible to view web pages by accessing the Internet are being introduced. In addition, it is being arranged so that JAVA (registered trademark) and other programs can be downloaded to a mobile telephone via the Internet and run on the mobile telephone.
However, the state of the art is such that with a mobile telephone, it is possible to view only a still-picture page provided by a camera server as a web page. In this case the user must actively perform an operation to update the video. Heretofore a personal computer or its equivalent having a large image display area and a large number of operating keys has been used as an operating terminal capable of controlling a camera while video from the camera server is observed as a real-time moving picture. It is not possible to acquire a moving picture and control a camera by an operation similar to that of a personal computer or the like using an existing mobile terminal having a small display screen and only a limited number of operating keys.